Having considered this yesterday I decided to 'keep quiet' but having woken this morning to David's ceramic suggestion I'll add my own pennyworth.
As the Shuttle uses ceramic tiles it seemed logical to suggest that a device embedded within such a material would serve the purpose. Perhaps move away from the cube design to a classic "flying saucer" shape. As David says, the ceramic is transparent to RF, a classic saucer shape offers two significant surfaces for solar cells; sized correctly the circumference could provide for an embedded (and therefore protected) dipole and if re-entry could be engineered to occur 'edge on' a minimal profile would be presented. I wonder if they have "B" grade (Shuttle) tiles left over? David G8OQW ******** -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: 10 August 2009 00:31 To: [email protected] Cc: [email protected] Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: New Cubesat - the Ultimate Fox Hunt Or, the not so 'cube'sat structure is an aerodynamic shape made from a cast ceramic material which glides in at a shallow angle allowing the energy to be dissipated over a much longer period of time. OK the solar cells burn off but an internal antenna would be OK as ceramics are fairly transparent to RF and a battery would provide the final hour or so of tlm. Would love to see the temp readings as it comes down. Would not love to be on the final end of the trajectory when it arrives. David G0MRF _______________________________________________ Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb _______________________________________________ Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
